Method of Identifying a Radio Link

1. A method of identifying a radio link of a terminal device to a wireless communication system, the method comprising the following steps: a) determining values of parameters of n≧2 radio links, whereby the parameters of each radio link are suitable to quantify at least an aspect of the quality of service of this radio link, the parameters (QoS parameters) being generic QoS parameters usable by different radio access technologies, b) calculating, for each radio link, a value of a metric with the associated determined QoS parameters, whereby the value of the metric defines the overall quality of service of the corresponding radio link, c) identifying one of the n≧2 radio links (best radio link) as being the radio link offering the best quality of service by comparing the n≧2 values of the metric calculated in step b), wherein determining values of generic QoS parameters is done by measuring and/or estimating them, or measuring and/or estimating QoS parameters specific to a radio access technology, and mapping the obtained values into generic QoS parameters.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining values of generic QoS parameters is done by receiving generic QoS parameters, or mathematical representations of generic QoS parameters, or receiving RAT-specific Qos parameters and mapping them into generic QoS parameters.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein calculating the metric is done with generic QoS parameters received from the terminal device and generic QoS parameters determined by the communication system, and/or with generic QoS parameters received from the communication system and generic QoS parameters determined by the terminal device.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the output values of the metric are scalar values.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the output values of the metric are scalar values, and that larger values indicate a higher quality of service of the associated radio link.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein it further comprises the step of creating a quality ranking of the n≧2 radio links on the basis of the n≧2 values of the metric.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the metric is calculated according to ∏ i ⁢ ( QoS determined ⁡ ( i ) QoS application ⁡ ( i ) ) a i whereby QoS determined (i) are the determined values of the generic QoS parameters, whereby QoS application (i) are values of the generic QoS parameters as requested by a particular application running on the terminal device, and whereby α i are weighting factors.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the metric is calculated according to ∏ i ⁢ ( f i ⁡ ( x i ) ) a i , whereby x i = QoS determined ⁡ ( i ) QoS application ⁡ ( i ) , whereby QoS determined (i) are the determined values of the generic QoS parameters, whereby QoS application (i) are values of the generic QoS parameters as requested by a particular application running on the terminal device, whereby f i (x) are mathematical functions and whereby α i are weighting factors.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the functions f i (x) are clip functions of the type clip i ⁡ ( x ) = [ 0 for x i ⁢ < ⁢ min i x i for min i ⁢ < x i < max i max i for max i ⁢ < x i ⁢ ⁢ with ⁢ ⁢ x i = QoS determined ⁡ ( i ) QoS application ⁡ ( i ) whereby min i represents a minimum allowed value and max i a maximum allowed value of the quantity x i .

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein determining the parameters of the n≧2 radio links is carried out by the terminal device, and that the terminal device calculates the values of the metric after having received the weighting factors α i from the communication system.

11. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the terminal device transmits a trigger to the communication system if the serving radio link is not the best radio link, to course the communication system to consider or decide a handover to a better radio link as a future serving radio link.

12. A computer program product for identifying a radio link, the computer program product comprising a computer readable medium, having thereon computer program code means, when said program is loaded, to make a computer executable for carrying out the method according to claim 1 .

13. A terminal device for accessing a wireless communication system, wherein comprising a computer program product according to claim 12 .

14. A wireless communication system, wherein comprising a computer program product according to claim 12 .